This week the 138 Games series brings you five games from 2006 to 2007 that the Opinionated Gamers recommend everyone try at least once. This entry is sandwiched with two preeminent designs by the esteemed Vlaada Chvatil. Vlaada has designed an incredibly wide range of board games, but these two are some of the most widely respected and enjoyed of his games. There’s plenty of other gaming goodness buried within as well, including Lehmann, Wallace, and the game that popularized the time track. Next week we’ll return with one more 2007 game and will breeze through 2008 into 2009 before eventually wrapping up with a few surprisingly recent releases that some OG writers think may be destined for greatness.
– Through the Ages –
Larry: One of the holiest of Holy Grails in gaming is the Civ Lite game. You know, a game with the sweep, depth, and epic nature of Tresham’s Civilization, all playable in 3 hours or 
so. Through the Ages comes as close to that mythical goal as any game is likely to get.
But it’s much more than that. By eschewing a map and putting leaders, technologies, territories, and opportunities to wage war all on cards, Chvatil gives us a unique playing experience, all wonderfully interconnected and, most surprising of all, very thematic. The game is remarkably innovative and totally engrossing. Its roots are based in Euro games, but it’s no bloodless cube-pusher–there’s most certainly scope for direct attacks (Napoleon, anyone?), just on the game’s own appropriately limited terms. Simultaneously juggling the game’s many subsystems–economy, manpower, technology, military, etc.–is very challenging, but oh so rewarding. And all of it plays out while you watch your civilization rise and fall, led by multiple leaders utilizing new technologies on every turn. It’s magnificent.
It takes a lot to keep me engaged with one game for 3 or 4 hours, but Through the Ages does it for me every time. It’s my favorite game of all time and one of the top rated games in our hobby. If you have any tolerance for longer games and particularly if you like Civ games or epic designs in general, this is one game you must play before you meet your maker. Anything less just wouldn’t be civilized.
Netrunner Diaries
Android: Netrunner arrived on the scene almost a year ago in September 2012. Little did I know at the time that it would dramatically reshape how I spent my board game playing time. I’d learned the original Netrunner a couple years earlier in 2010 and had played it about 75 times over the course of three years. The new Netrunner is different though, I’ve already played it over 160 times in less than a year. The game is almost the same, but it
s pervasiveness and the availability of opponents has skyrocketed. In addition, the “living” nature of the card game with ongoing releases cleverly keeps players engaged month in and month out as the landscape of the game slowly evolves. I was skeptical at first, but have since been won over by this remake of the classic card game.
The first cycle of data pack expansions has recently concluded, so it’s a good time to look back over how the game has evolved in the months since it was first released. The game has changed so much in under a year. I played the game 36 times with just the base set in those first few months when the universe of available cards was rather small. I actually tired of the game in early November due to its relatively limited scope and variability, but picked it back up after the first data pack was released in December and have been enjoying it more and more as the card pool continues to expand. The addition of new cards actually has a directly positive impact on the gameplay itself because Netrunner is a game of bluffing and out guessing your opponent, which is less interesting when there’s a limited number of card combinations possible. It’s a lot harder to legitimately trick someone if there’s just a small handful of possibilities for that face down card you’re advancing. But as the number of cards available increases, the challenge of anticipating your opponent’s moves goes up and the game becomes more interesting as a result. I suppose it’s possible that this curve could eventually switch directions if things became too unpredictable and unwieldy, but I don’t think that’s a real concern any time in the foreseeable future.
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